Alabama, a historic stage for civil rights showdowns, remains in crisis with a poverty rate above 25% in Black Belt counties and 42nd ranking nationwide for quality of government. In 2017, the state returned to the spotlight for the US Senate special election between Republican Judge Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones, the attorney who prosecuted Ku Klux Klan members responsible for the 1963 Birmingham church bombings.

Moore was an extreme conservative with a history of controversy, including two removals from the Alabama Supreme Court, accusations of stalking and sexual assault on a minor, and a desire to remove all Constitutional amendments after the Bill of Rights. However, Moore remained the favorite due to his support from Donald Trump and Southern Baptists in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat Senator in 25 years.

Alabama also maintained extensive voter suppression measures due to Act Number 2011-673. Governor Robert Bentley closed DMVs in 18 Black-majority counties, leaving a third of the state’s voting population more than 10 miles away from a regularly open office. The mobile DMV that replaced the locations only issued a fraction of the estimated 25,000 cards, and 56% of rural voters and 20% of urban voters do not have Internet access for online registration.